Two Bar Mitzvahs (12 page)

Confused, she shook her head. “What isn’t right?”

“That the ‘licking off’ part would only be
half
the fun. More like three-quarters.”

Her shoulders shook with silent laughter—which did this amazing bouncing thing to her breasts hidden by that black nightie, the subject of our discussion. “So where exactly did you buy that?” I gestured my finger to the outfit.

She tilted her head. I had no idea whether she was aware of her actions, but her hand had abandoned her arm. She now rubbed it back and forth in barely perceptible movements, just underneath the curve of her breast. “It’s a baby-doll. And why do you want to know?”

My gaze got stuck on that tantalizing movement. I swallowed hard. “Oh, I don’t know. To buy you presents, send them a thank-you card, buy stock in their company…”

There went her lower lip again, sucked into her mouth, before she slowly released it again. Her talented mouth had teased and sucked other things so well, my mind blew, thoughts scattering.

Her hand shifted from the gentle stroking below her breast and smoothed up over it. She hissed in a breath when her fingers drifted over the center. I couldn’t see her nipples, but I imagined them hard, aching for my lips, my teeth.

She took a step closer. “I bought it at Nordstrom, but it’s made by Agent Provocateur.”

“I like this Agent Provocateur. Why did you buy a baby-doll over anything else?”

She smirked. “Because they don’t sell burlap bags.”

“Fuck burlap bags. New rule: baby-dolls are the new burlap bag.”

She pursed her lips together as her gaze drifted over me. “Watcha got under there, Cade?”

I looked down. My bare legs had tangled in the sheet. One was exposed all the way to my hip with the sheet covering only part of my waist and groin. I leaned back, crossing my hands behind my head on the pillow. “Why don’t you come over here and find out?”

She sucked her lip in for a third time, capturing it between her teeth.

“You know that drives me crazy, right?” Part of me wondered if she knew she pushed my buttons, but the other part hoped it was coincidence—like everything she did, and all that she was, had been made just for me.

“What?” She stepped closer and pressed her breasts together. One of the little lace straps fell off her shoulder.

I swallowed when her teeth released what she’d bitten. “Your lip. When you pull it into your mouth. Jealousy has me torn between wanting to be the one to bite it and needing you to put that pretty mouth all over me.”

She gave me a slow smile as the other strap fell off her shoulder. My gaze drifted down to her breasts. When she pulled her arms away, the gauzy fabric clung to her body only by her curves. “On or off?”

“Off.” My voice sounded gruff. The time for talking had passed. I wanted Hannah naked, on me. I needed to be in her.

Fabric fluttered to the ground.

My breath caught at her beauty, every dip and curve, delicate skin over deceptive strength.
Exquisite.

Mine.

She’d left her thong on. But as she knelt down and crawled over me, the tiny scrap of lace between us ceased to matter.

“Cade?” She pulled the sheet away, and my erection sprang free, hot and pulsing. I sucked in a sharp breath, hoping her warm mouth might soothe it, those plump lips and teeth finally finding a better use than chewing on her lower lip. Then I exhaled slowly, my cock twitching, as I imagined sinking deep into her.

“Mmm?” I blinked, focusing on her face.

She hadn’t touched me yet. Only stared at me, reading me.

When she opened her mouth, I leaned up and captured it in a hard kiss, silencing her. Then I pulled away, eyes narrowing. “Not
words
from your mouth.
Actions
by your mouth.”

“So bossy.” She shoved hard on one shoulder, and I relaxed, letting her push me back down onto the pillow.

She gave me a mischievous grin as she crawled down my body. Then she pulled her damned lip inside her mouth again. “No. No more lip biting. Cock sucking.”

She released her lip, hovering her mouth over me. Hot air fogged across my skin, and my breath caught while she watched me. A deep ache fired through my cock, and I clenched my fists in the sheets to hold still. My brows furrowed as my chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.

“Yes, sir.”

Her lips pressed against my tip. Then she sucked—hard. Sweet. Hot.
Excruciating
. Her smirk was the last thing I remembered as my head fell back on a sharp inhale.

I’d missed the fuck out of her.

When we came together, nothing else existed. I needed what she provided: grounding, understanding, comfort. To be lost and found—with her.

I let out a ragged groan as Hannah showed me I had nothing to be jealous of with her abused lower lip. She’d been saving all of the talented things her mouth did for me.

The day had come for our scheduled sample run at Madison’s country club. As we stepped into the ballroom Suzanne led us to, an understanding about one thing hit me with clarity: Madison had no intention of making anything easy for us.

In the past week, she’d completely disregarded my demand to deal with her private event coordinator, Suzanne, directly. Every email I sent to Suzanne, Madison replied to it. When I redirected my response to Suzanne, Madison replied again.

Putting an end to her game, I decided to pick my battles. I began to send the damn emails to both of them. Let them sort out their shit.

My sisters, Hannah, and I stood in the ballroom set with various examples of how Madison’s team envisioned the event, complete with ridiculous floral centerpieces, fine bone china, and thousand-plus thread count table linens.

No need to guess whether or not Madison would show her new kinder-gentler side. She stood on the far side of the room, arms crossed, glacial expression.

Message received. Her territory? No chance in hell she’d show vulnerability.

Worked for me. This whole ordeal put me in a piss-poor mood, and my sadistic side clamored to butt heads with her.

I blinked. “You’re kidding, right? What part of bar mitzvah did you not understand?” I gave Madison a weary stare. “It looks like a fucking spring garden explosion in here.”

Ivory tablecloths, green linen napkins, frilly centerpieces with pink, purple, and yellow flowers arching out of small vases made every male cell in my body twitch to dump the tables in rebellion. The other two tables were worse. One actually had gold-rimmed crystal goblets. The other… “Are those
pink
napkins?”

Blinking in confusion, I lifted the offending color up toward the overhead lights, thinking I had to have gone colorblind from the bright sunlight outside.

Madison smirked. “It’s salmon. More coral than pink.”

Hannah coughed next to me. “
Selfish Bitch.
”

I snorted but inhaled a deep breath, forcing myself to relax. My words came out calm. Smooth. With no margin for misunderstanding whatsoever.

“I don’t give a good goddamn what you call it. They’re bringing their boys into the world, transforming them into men. We’re not ousting them out of the closet. If they want to throw that kind of party, I have no issues with it. But you aren’t making that poor-taste call.

“And you’re sure as fuck not deciding colors. I am. Keep the colors primary, the shades with names from the basic Crayola box. Black and green” —I lifted her idea of a green napkin off the table— “not this
chartreuse
shit. The other room can be in blue, as in ‘lake blue,’ not
peacock
. And if you want to go wild with a third color in either room, go with silver or white. That’s it. No other colors.”

Madison had the audacity to look bored. “Fine. What else?”

I sat my ass in the nearest chair. “Why don’t you bring around the food samples? Let’s hope your chef realized there will be teenagers at the party and opted for appetizers over hors d'oeuvres or, God forbid, an
amuse-bouche
.”

Yeah, I openly mocked her. But she started it. With her home-field advantage at
her
club, she boldly fucked with
our
event to our faces. I planned to end this bullshit waste of time.

We began to take seats at the first (least offensive) table, chairs enough for only the five of us. Madison and Suzanne stood a few feet off, hawking around, watching and waiting. I ignored them.

Finding some good in the middle of it all, I plucked one of the flower stems from the vase and handed it to Hannah. “For you.” I winked.

She smiled. Up the tall stem spiraled bright yellow snapdragon blooms. In one fell swoop Madison had given us something of value without realizing it, diffusing my anger with a good memory. The distraction grounded me a bit and seemed to bring joy to Hannah too. Secrets had that magical effect.

Hannah leaned closer to me. “So far she hasn’t sprouted horns or breathed fire. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sure you’re okay tasting without Madison and Suzanne participating?”

My lips twitched. “You think she’ll poison us?”

She shrugged. “I’m just saying, prepare yourself.”

I gave Hannah a quick nod, then tapped my leaded crystal water glass. “What do you think of the stemware, Kristen?”

“It’s too formal, completely wrong. We need simple glasses, basic plates.” Kristen stood and surveyed the options at the other tables. “These glasses.” She held a glass up until Suzanne typed a note into her electronic tablet. Kristen then tapped on a plain white dinner plate on the third table. “This place setting.”

Two waiters brought out trays of food. We proceeded to taste everything they supplied. Each item was introduced as they served, from tiny quiches to crab cakes to pigs in a blanket. The current waiter served the next item. “These are vegetable pot stickers with an apricot-mango spicy dipping sauce.”

I nodded, satisfied. “All of it will work, except for the pigs-in-the-blanket and crab cakes.”

“What? One too gauche, the other too highbrow?” Madison crossed her arms but nodded to Suzanne who took notes.

“No, Einstein. They’re Jewish. They don’t eat pork or shellfish. Even if some would, I’m not risking it.”

“We could serve beef hot dogs instead of pork,” she countered.

“No. I don’t want guests concerned, whether or not it’s warranted.”

“Fine. Any other requests?” Her lips pressed into a firm line as she stared at me, jaw clenching.

Yeah, well, she had only herself to blame for being the brunt of my fury. With at least half of this shit, she should’ve known better. Either she was incompetent in her role, or she was goading me.

“I’ll send over a list of additional requests for each room. We want wood flooring in the centers for dancing, tables along the perimeter. We’ll determine table count and seating and send those over by the weekend. Do you have access to two popcorn machines?”

Madison glanced at Suzanne, who then confirmed, “We have one. I can rent another.”

“And photo booths.” Kiki twisted in her chair to face them. “Rent a photo booth for each room too.”

We all nodded in agreement.

Suzanne gave a short nod. “Done. If you think of anything else, email me by Friday. That’ll give us a week to arrange for any last-minute details.” She stepped away from Madison toward me. “Cade, could I borrow you for a few minutes? I’ve got some paperwork in my office for you to sign.”

“Sure.” I stood while giving Hannah’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “I’ll be back in a few.”

I was done with this meeting. We’d accomplished what we’d come for on the surface, and Madison hadn’t shown her hand regarding our suspicions. “Meanwhile, if
you
have any questions” —I looked pointedly at Suzanne— “or clarifications let me know. These events need to go off without a hitch, which will make the client happy. Then we’re all happy. Right, Madison?”

Her eyes narrowed imperceptibly, but I caught her irritation.
Good.
Enough dicking around. We were here to conduct business, not a pissing match.

I suspected this stupid setup was all an elaborate test to see how far she could push us.

The answer? Not at all.

I followed Suzanne out of the ballroom, down hall, and around the corner to her office, the first door on the left. Normally efficient, Suzanne suddenly appeared to be disorganized as she rifled through one file after another on her desk. She frowned, then moved over to a file cabinet and opened the top drawer. “Sorry. I thought I left the file in the center of my desk.”

“Is it something you can email? Can it be digitally signed?”

She shook her head. “Give me just a minute. It has to be here somewhere.”

I remained in the doorway while she searched.

“Madison gave me a few new files this morning.” She moved back to her desk, then moved files one by one off a stack on the corner. “Here is yours.”